Once again, here’s a transcript of the comment (feel free to click above to expand the image):
Commenter:
Why not simply use jshell?Me:
I feel like the article outlines that decision pretty well. DrJava is more than a REPL. It’s an education IDE plus a REPL.Commenter:
It’s just the two things you seem to like the most about the IDE are not autocomplete (I’d hate that BTW), and the interactions pane, which seems like the jshell.Why not use jshell plus a “real world” IDE? Your students will benefit from having that knowledge too.
On a side note, which Java versions does DrJava support?
To be honest, I hesitated to put this one in the list because it’s so innocent, but I really hate these kind of comments.
For context, I had written an article about why I usually tell students to use DrJava over a typical IDE like Eclipse. After laying out my point, someone had the audacity to pull the child-like argument “BUT WHY?” To make matters worse, they tried to belittle me by using the word “simply” as if I were stupid.
When I ultimately got defensive, they decided to tell me how they really felt (i.e. lack of autocomplete sucks, students could learn more, etc.). Then, they asked an “innocuous” question which I can only assume was their sad attempt at a “gotcha.” Obviously, they could have Googled exactly which versions of Java are supported by DrJava—which I assume they did.
When I ultimately responded, they didn’t even acknowledge anything I said. In other words, they were just another troll that wanted to see me get all flustered.
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